Ethical hackers have moved 52.37 BTC to a recovery trust following the Coldcard wallet breach, safeguarding funds for victims.
Whitehat hackers move 52 BTC to a recovery trust address
In a significant development, ethical hackers have transferred 52.37 Bitcoin to a newly established recovery trust following the Coldcard hardware wallet breach that occurred in July. This move was reported by Galaxy Digital’s Head of Research, Alex Thorn.
The Coldcard hack, which began on July 30, resulted in losses exceeding $100 million, as attackers exploited vulnerabilities in the wallet's software that allowed for the generation of insecure wallet seeds. These weaknesses made it possible for hackers to reconstruct the wallets and access the funds.
Coinkite, the manufacturer of Coldcard wallets, has since updated its firmware to address these vulnerabilities. However, funds that were compromised due to the original software flaws remain at risk.
Thorn highlighted that the 52.37 BTC transferred includes funds from victim wallets that were not taken by malicious actors but rather safeguarded by whitehat hackers. These ethical hackers aim to protect the funds until they can be returned to their rightful owners.
The recent transfer represents a consolidation of funds from the second wave of the exploit, along with other identified transactions, all directed to an address with the OP_RETURN message "claim:cryptorecoverytrust dot com." This transaction was confirmed in block 967,948.
Notably, the transferred amount constitutes about 2.8% of the total funds tracked from the exploit, with approximately 40% of the second wave activities now attributed to whitehat efforts. Additionally, 3.0134 BTC with no prior tracking history was sent to the same recovery address, which may also represent funds recovered by ethical hackers.
Victims of the Coldcard hack can verify if their funds were recovered by visiting cryptorecoverytrust.com and entering their wallet addresses.
